Weird West
Weird West is a literary subgenre that combines elements of the Western with another literary genre, usually horror, occult, fantasy or science fiction. DC's Weird Western Tales appeared in the early 1970s and the weird Western was further popularized by Joe R. Lansdale who "is best known for his tales of the 'weird west,' a genre mixing splatterpunk with alternate history Western almost entirely defined by the author in the early 1990s. His work reads a little like the sort of folklore in which Mark Twain dabbled (or the Gothic in which Flannery O'Connor was involved), but with zombies and gore."Bubba Ho-Tep review Examples of these cross-genres include Deadlands (Western/horror), The Wild Wild West and its later film adaptation (Western/steampunk), Jonah Hex (Western/supernatural), BraveStarr (Western/science fiction), and many others. Background When supernatural menaces of horror fiction are injected into a Western setting, it creates the horror Western. Writer G. W. ThomasOf Men & Monsters has described how the two combine: "Unlike many other cross-genre tales, the weird Western uses both elements but with very little loss of distinction. The Western setting is decidedly 'Western' and the horror elements are obviously 'horror.'"Crossing Horror: Using Horror in Other Genres, by G.W. Thomas Jeff Mariotte's comic book series Desperadoes has been running, off and on, for a decade now and he still remains bullish about the genre:How the West was Weird: Mariotte talks “Desperadoes” Return, wikipedia:Comic Book Resources, October 30, 2006 As far as Mariotte is concerned, the potential for Weird West stories is limitless. “The West was a weird place. There are ghost towns and haunted mines and when you bring Native American beliefs into it, then the possibilities are even greater.” Examples Books TV right|thumb|''Jonah Hex'', Vol.1 #1, 1977. Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, artist. Comics In comic books a number of heroes had adventures involving monsters, aliens, and costumed supervillains. Marvel Comics characters such as Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid, and Two-Gun Kid all had such adventures. Where Marvel went in for supervillains, DC Comics added more of a horror element to their stories such as Jonah Hex, pushed further in three mini-series from Vertigo written by Joe R. Lansdale. The DC character Tomahawk could also be termed a hero of the Weird West, though his adventures were set in the colonies during the time of the American Revolution. While the origin of the Saint of Killers in the Old West is the only true western element in the comic book Preacher, the series has been described as a "Splatterpunk Western" or a mix of the Western with the Gothic. Examples include: *''American Gothic, by Ian Edginton and Mike Collins *The Big Book of the Weird Wild West: How the West Was Really Won!, anthology from Paradox Press *Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities, by Eric Powell and Kyle Hotz (Dark Horse Comics, 2006, ISBN 1-59307-448-4)Billy the Kid's Old-Timey Oddities TPB, Dark Horse Comics *Cowboys & AliensCowboysAndAliens at wikipedia:DrunkDuckCowboys and Aliens, Comics2Film.com *El Diablo'' *''Dead Irons'' *''Desperadoes'' *''Djustine'' by Enrico Teodorani *''Doc Frankenstein'' *''East of West'' *''Gunplay'' by Jorge Vega, with art by Dominic Vivona, Platinum StudiosJorge Vega: Learning To Play With Guns, wikipedia:Comics Bulletin, March 10, 2008 *''High Moon'' a werewolf Western webcomic by zuda / DC Comics. Created by David Gallaher and Steve Ellis *''Iron West, by Doug TenNapelTenNapel Strikes Gold in "Iron West", wikipedia:Comic Book Resources, May 17, 2006 *Jonah Hex'' *''Justice Riders'' (DC Comics Elseworlds) by Chuck Dixon and J.H. Williams III *''Last Shot'' (Image Comics Studio XD) by Locke and Long Vo *''Lobo Annual'' #2: "A Fistful of Bastiches" *''Phantom Rider'' *''Preacher Special: Saint of Killers'' (4-issue mini-series, Preacher spin off, by Garth Ennis) *''Pretty Deadly'' *''The Rawhide Kid'' *''The Sixth Gun'' *''Strangeways, solicited by Speakeasy Comics before they closed. Will appear as a graphic novel.Meeting at the Strangeways, wikipedia:Newsarama, October 13, 2005Matt Maxwell on Strangeways: Murder Moon, wikipedia:Newsarama, April 4, 2008 *Tex Arcana'' by John FindleyTex Arcana *''Tex Willer'' (in some stories) *''The Transformers: Evolutions'' *''Weird Western Tales'' *''The Wild Wild West: The Night of the Iron Tyrants, #1–4 by Mark Ellis and Darryl Banks, Millennium Publications. *The Wicked WestWelcome to the Wicked West *Wynonna Earp'' by Beau Smith. Published by Image Comics / IDW Publishing *''Zagor'' (in many stories) Films Games Music See also * Acid Western, often strange counter-cultural Westerns from the 1960s onwards * Cross-genre, of which Weird West is a key example * List of steampunk works, as a number of the examples veer into this area * Science fiction Western, a Weird West subgenre with science-fiction themes in an Old West setting * Space Western, the application of Western themes to a science-fiction frontier setting * Western genre in other media References Further reading * External links * The Encyclopedia Of Weird Westerns Blog * The Weird West Emporium Category:Weird West Category:Campaign settings Category:Fantasy genres Category:Film genres Category:Horror fiction Category:Science fiction genres Category:Speculative fiction Category:Steampunk Category:Western